Manageability refers to a system's ability to enable remote and local management, which may include, for example, system diagnostics, software updates, and/or system inventory. One way to achieve manageability is to use operating system-independent processors (hereinafter “service processors”). Service processors refer to auxiliary processors on a system that may operate independently of the operating system. This enables systems to be managed whether or not the operating system is working.
Systems may be managed via management applications. A “management application” refers to a program that may access and manage the system. Sometimes, it is important for management applications to work locally (within the system) as well as remotely (over a network). However, current network protocols present some challenges to this requirement.